Hiamonee Farms

Spring is always welcome in North Florida! It seemed to start very early this year, but as usual, there have been a couple of 'reboots'! Our pears, peaches, and apples have all completed blooming, and the blackberries have just begun. Chestnuts are just beginning to leaf out. Citrus is in full bloom right now, and the bees are always humming among those heady-sweet flowers. It looks like all the flowers survived two recent frosts, and although we had to top the trees to limit their height (they were so tall we couldn't harvest all of oranges and lemons even with a ladder last winter) we are expecting bumper crops! We're going to try opening up the citrus to U-pick activity late this year. We're very excited about new plantings that established loquats and thornless blackberries on the farm! The loquats are grafted trees that produce much larger fruits than the seedling loquats you find in nearly every yard in the Gulf South. Loquats bloom in this area in mid-winter, so getting them through hard winter freezes is difficult, but some made it! We only got a taste from the blackberries last summer, but we're expecting much heavier production this year, and we've expanded the plantings! We're also trying out some loganberries to see how they'll do here.